Scratching the surface

Robbie Neilson has revealed that he’s already picked his team for Saturday’s match against Falkirk and there may be a personnel change or two.

The Jambos head to the Falkirk Stadium on Championship duty this weekend to play on an artificial surface. Having already rotated his starting line-up for past astro-turf encounters this season, Robbie has admitted he’s set to do the same again on Saturday.

Speaking at this morning’s pre-match press conference, Robbie said: “The surface will definitely come into my team selection. I’ve decided what I’m going to do already, team-wise.

“It will take into account the astro-turf, the way the ball moves and different players who are suited to it.

“It’s part of football; you need to adapt to different situations.”

Despite running out comprehensive 4-1 winners over the Bairns at Tynecastle in August, the head coach is expecting a closer game this weekend.

“It’s another hard one,” he said. “Falkirk are a good team. They’re experienced and they’ve got a lot of players who’ve played in the Premiership or the Championship for a long time.

“They’ve got experience but a lot of good, young players as well that are developing. We know it’s going to be difficult.

“We’re taking another good support there. It’ll be difficult on the astro-turf, it’s a different surface again for us. We’ll try and prepare properly for it.

“We had a good result against them last time and hopefully we can do the same.”

Robbie’s pre-match press conference is available to watch in full on HeartsTV.